The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) recently helped rescue a 30-year-old woman, who was allegedly confined at her parents house in Gurugram for the last five years, as her parents were opposed to her marrying a man outside of their caste, the DCW said in a statement on Friday.

A DCW spokesperson said that a Gurugram court had, on October 26, ordered police to provide protection to the couple.

In 2011, the woman had married an MNC employee, who she had met in college. Soon after, her parents allegedly confined her to the house and managed to get the couple an ex-parte divorce. She had reportedly called the 181 women helpline on October 23 following which a DCW team along with the city police reached the house to rescue her.

“After the rescue, the woman was kept at a safe house till she was produced in court and provided protection. The girl shall be re marrying her ex-husband after seven years now,” a DCW official said.

“The couple had, in 2011, registered their marriage in Jaipur and did not reveal their marriage to their families as they feared that their families would oppose their marriage as they belonged to different castes. In November 2011, the man went to the woman’s place with a formal marriage proposal which her family refused. They threatened to kill him if he ever thought of marrying her while not knowing that they were already married,” DCW said in the statement.

When the couple’s efforts to pacify the families failed, they ran away together in January 2013.

They had barely stayed together when the woman received a call from a friend informing her that her mother has had a cardiac arrest.

“The woman panicked and returned home, where she was confined. She tried to escape on October 23 but was caught after which she called the helpline and was rescued by our team,” said Swati Maliwal, DCW chairperson.

First Published: Nov 03, 2018 08:15 IST